Opportunity History

U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIONSmall Business Size Standards: Waiver of the Nonmanufacturer Rule

AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration.

ACTION: Notice of intent to waive the Nonmanufacturer Rule for Water Treatment Chemicals.

SUMMARY: The U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is considering granting a waiver of the Nonmanufacturer Rule for Water Treatment Chemicals. The basis for waivers is that no small business manufacturers are supplying these classes of products to the Federal government. The effect of a waiver would be to allow otherwise qualified regular dealers to supply the products of any domestic manufacturer on a Federal contract set aside for small businesses, service disabled veteran-owned small businesses or SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program. The purpose of this notice is to solicit comments and potential source information from interested parties.

DATE: Comments and sources must be submitted on or before February 3, 2006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Edith Butler, Program Analyst, by telephone at (202) 619-0422; by FAX at 481-1788; or by email at edith.butler@sba.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 8(a) (17) of the Small Business Act (Act),15 U.S.C. 637(a)(17), requires that recipients of Federal contracts set aside for small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, or SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program provide the product of a small business manufacturer or processor, if the recipient is other than the actual manufacturer or processor. This requirement is commonly referred to as the Nonmanufacturer Rule.

The SBA regulations imposing this requirement are found at 13 CFR§121.406 (b). Section 8(a)(17)(b)(iv) of the Act authorizes SBA to waive the Nonmanufacturer Rule for any "class of products" for which there are no small business manufacturers or processors in the Federal market.

As implemented in SBA’s regulations at 13 CFR§121.1202 (c), in order to be considered available to participate in the Federal market for a class of products, a small business manufacturer must have submitted a proposal for a contract solicitation or received a contract from the Federal government within the last 24 months. The SBA defines "class of products" based on six digit coding systems. The first coding system is the Office of Management and Budget North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

The SBA is currently processing a request to waive the Nonmanufacturer Rule for Water Treatment Chemicals, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 325188, and 325199. The public is invited to comment or provide source information to SBA on the proposed waiver of the Nonmanufacturer Rule for these NAICS codes.